Somethin New Every Day ;)

(1) Some people need to reread Liber LXV immediately, then either decide to more consistently resume their kingliness, or resolve to enjoy their ongoing slavery (either one will do); nor should they unduly congratulate themselves over (usually disguised as "bemoaning") their thickheadedness.* Nearly everyone indulges moments of whining and self-pity; Thelemites, as a class, regret it and move on. Then too, one of the wonderful things about Initiation is how resolutely the universe punishes us when we refuse to do so -- as when non-Thelemite friends, all-unknowing, rebuke us for failing to be Thelemic.** Amen, and Amen without Lie.

(2) High-fives to AJ for not doing a political post for a week and a half...and if that meant no posts at all for said week and a half, hey, thass okay too. I am beginning to suspect that one of the unexpected effects of an Inner Order's "five years of Silence" can be a sudden explosion of political rants from members of its Shining Triangle: certainly Crowley experienced that. I don't regret what I've posted here, continue to think that the survival of both the planet and American power would be Good Things, and can't promise not to return to political posts now 'n' again -- but I also have a sense that I'm getting back to my proper work, A Good Thing in its own right. :)

(3) I am always amazed (as I believe I've noted here before) to discover what I'm driven to research for each succeeding book in the Consciousness Cycle. For Occult Forces (attributed to Binah) it was previously-unexplored (by me, I mean) areas of Golden Dawn teaching; for Layton Drive (Malkuth) it was history (in both personal and external senses), and for Topanga (Yesod), the whole of the western collective unconscious: especially classical literature (Greeks & Romans), the crosscultural persistence of "Arcady," and lots of psychology, particularly the Jungian variety. Now that I'm working on volume four, In The Nightmare Village (Hod), I have been both astonished, and somewhat dismayed, to find myself delving into such apparently unrelated areas as my favorite feminist texts of thirty (and more) years ago, medieval Italian literature, and (this for the first time) the mysteries of Roman Catholicism (!)...and only this week I finally figured out that all three threads were for backstory on a particular "minor" character who's apparently just turned into a major character for this work. Whodathunkit?! Not me, that's for sure.

(4) A subset of the above: one of the "missing links" between early Christian doctrine (itself largely influenced by intertestamentary Judaism) and the Catholic faith is the medieval Italian interest in classical philosophers (their work largely preserved, thank God, by Islamic scholars, despite the best efforts of some early Christians; see Ramsay MacMullen, Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, indispensable not only for its historic value, but (as it turns out) as a comment on current events): most especially Aristotle; hence some otherwise puzzling aspects to the subsequent works of both Augustine and Aquinas, not to mention our old buddy Dante. All of which leads to a final insight, for the moment:

(5) The City of the Pyramids is forever being lost, then rediscovered; the Shining Triangle always underpopulated thanks to superstition and nonsense, but (so far) always Open for Business. I should have known this, from Crowley's reworking of Eckartshausen (as "An Account of A.'.A.'.," which only the profane consider fanciful), but apparently needed the reminder. Again.

Enough for now -- hope to post again soon. X's and O's to all. :)

93 93/93 -- AJ

* I could not dispense such advice so confidently had I not had to so painfully, and so repeatedly, learn it myself. So there. ;)

** "Being Thelemic," here, basically means being conscious of our life-strategies: recognizing them, and either accepting or reforming them as we prefer. This makes even whining itself less miserable: we decide to whine, are conscious of whining, and have no right but to whine. This tends to defeat the purpose of whining, of course...which is part of the point.